France inaugurates annual slavery memorial day

Every night – for over a fortnight – last November, youths from marginalized Muslim and black communities emulated 1960s black Americans by setting cars and buildings ablaze all over France to unleash pent-up frustrations with the country’s entrenched and pervasive practice of institutionalized and social racism. And even though many of us would have preferred to see them adopt Martin Luther King’s (MLK) non-violent civil unrest as their means for commanding attention to their plight, none of us can argue with the results of their protests.

After all, they forced the French government to appropriate billions and enact legislation to redress their economic and social grievances. Unfortunately, every day, for over a fortnight – in late-March to early-April, young (mostly white) Frenchmen – who thought these concessions infringed too much on their cradle-to-grave welfare – emulated 1960s black Americans as well by engaging in MLK-style non-violent protests and forced the government to rescind the legislation (re: entry-level jobs) that was enacted to benefit previously disadvantaged minorities.

Nonetheless, after compromise, many provisions remained in place to redress the grievances of Muslim and black youths as, for the first time in French history, the government considered the equitable interests of religious and ethnic groups in doling-out state benefits. And just yesterday, President Jacque Chirac took a significant step towards atoning for his country’s legacy of racism by inaugurating France’s first national slavery memorial day.

So here’s to France for commemorating this day and erecting this monument (r) as a reminder to citizens that, as Chirac atoned:

Slavery fed racism…[and] when people tried to justify the unjustifiable, that was when the first racist theories were elaborated.

Perhaps the British and Americans will now follow suit by building similar monuments (in the port of Bristol and on the Mall in Washington DC, as debated respectively) as symbols of national atonement and reminders of their own country’s legacy of racism.

NOTE: I hear Sylvester Stallone is almost as big as Jerry Lewis in France, but making his Rocky image the model for a national monument to commemorate slavery rather undermines French claims of recognizing and atoning for past sins of racism….Or is it just me?

French slavery memorial day, French legacy of racism